Continuous conveyors, such as conveyor belts or wire belt assemblies, are used in many applications in the food industry to convey and support food during the manufacturing process. Stainless steel is commonly utilized to manufacture such continuous conveyors. The use of stainless steel is desirable due to its compliance with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cleaning requirements and its mechanical properties.
Conveyor belts may be manufactured using a variety of methods. Each of the different belt construction methods is generally utilized for a specific food manufacturing process. Selection of the method used to form the wire belt assembly depends upon various factors such as, the type and texture of the food item to be conveyed, the overall belt width, the length of the continuous belt and system requirements such as, for example, winding the belt around a drum.
Stainless steel conveyor belts are typically the number one wear component in a food processing plant in terms of both purchase costs and unexpected machine down time. Because belts are often hundreds of feet in length, inspection of each section of the belt on a regular basis for wear or fatigue is generally impractical. Lack of or irregular inspection, however, may result in unexpected and/or costly belt failures in the midst of a production run.
Belt wear life may be increased by making the belts out of heavier material components. However, in many applications increasing the belt weight is undesirable and/or impractical. Alternatively, belt components may be manufactured from specialized grades of stainless steel that have a higher tensile strength thereby providing improved wear life. However, use of such materials is often cost prohibitive.